Jacob Posik’s advocacy to select Maine’s secretary of state, attorney general and state treasurer by popular vote or by gubernatorial appointment (“Maine must change the way it selects its constitutional officers,” Jan. 8) would have the opposite effect from what he claims. It would make the positions overtly political and lessen their independence from the negative effects of partisanship.

While the Legislature elects these officers typically by party-line votes, once elected these officers are able to act more independently because no Legislature is organized so as to have a single voice in the complex administration of these offices, and the officers can rely on the goodwill that won them legislative support in the first instance. I served in a non-partisan position under three Democratic and one Republican Maine attorneys general, and all consistently made highly professional decisions in their roles.

Mr. Posik would instead have the secretary of state make a political decision instead of adhering to her view of the law.

Tom Bradley
Portland